The end of Earth is near. The World Space Agency has sent two transports, the Stinson & Legacy, to continue life on other planets. Due to unforeseen problems, both transports have to return to Earth. Thirty Earth years have passed by the time the transports return, and they find a world they do not expect. This is a thrilling tale of suspense, action, and aerial/space dogfighting. Can Earth be saved?
A large jolt snapped him back to the present and he noticed that the cabin was now full, the attendants strapped into their seats. He had never before been on an airplane, let alone a spaceship, and his nervousness was now causing him to sweat profusely. He heard an incredibly loud hum and knew something terrible was about to happen. He closed his eyes. What happened next was the scariest moment of his very short life.
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Cameron turned off his overhead light, making it easier to see out the cabin window. He could see the linemen, dressed head to toe in their hot weather environmental survival gear, removing the fueling lines from the side of the shuttle. With average temperatures across the surface of the earth rising higher and higher each year, he wondered who would choose to work outside. It was true everyone was doing their part to save this planet and that made Cameron feel good that he was going to do his.
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“Son, there is a very strong chance that we won’t see the earth again in our life time, so this mission is on a strictly voluntary basis. If you choose to stay on earth, you will be transported back to the surface once both ships have left orbit. It is too dangerous of a risk to have people on earth know we are leaving, they will not understand. I do not need you to make a decision right now, but will need to know your choice in the next few hours so we have time to fill your spot with an alternate if you choose to stay behind.”
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A week had passed since Alex arrived and he knew he still had much to learn before he would even be considered a decent cook. Mark, who he had met the day he arrived, was even worse and was not progressing as fast as he was. Luckily for them, their supervisor didn’t really seem to care about how well they did. All in all, there were about twelve cooks spread out on four different shifts. Of course, being two of the youngest, they had pulled the graveyard shift. At least they were together.
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“But we’ll be leaving billions of innocent people to die. We just can’t leave them blind; they won’t even have a fighting chance.” Bill was always against the secrecy behind the mission. “They believe HOPE is helping them, when all we’re doing is leaving them. We should at least tell them.”
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Alex was pretty sure that the in-flight orders would most likely be for them to turn on each other. How else could they really be tested against each other? He hoped he pulled a great pilot since they were a big part of space combat. The rest of the navigators congratulated each of them as they gathered their flight gear and headed to the simulators. As Alex entered the simulator room, his gut sank.
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Cameron continued to stare at his monitor, this could not be happening. Maybe after Benton went into hibernation, Cameron could switch watch rotations without him knowing. He was a good enough guy; he just could not shut up. If it was not for his endless, all night talking, Steele fully believed he would not be behind in his qualifications. How could he study with his roommate disturbing him all the time? Did he ever shut up?
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“General,” there was a hint of disbelief in the navigator’s voice, “we’ve lost main engines three and four; we’re receiving no data from those engines and the other six engines are running at max power to keep up. The explosion has knocked us slightly off course. We are no longer on our planned flight path.”
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My thoughts exactly. General Helon had sent me a message when we launched about a potential saboteur on board. He was pretty sure he could handle it, but now I’m not so sure. We need to be ready for anything. If we come up with a good plan to go back and save them, I don’t want to pull up to a supposedly friendly ship only to find out the saboteurs have taken over the ship and they start firing on us.
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Now that Alex was commissioned as a WSA officer and assigned to Legacy’s Tactical Fighter Squadron, he wasn’t allowed to go into hibernation. Ever since they received Stinson’s distress signal, Lieutenant Colonel Greene had ordered that everyone in the squadron stay fit and ready to go to war at all times. They stayed combat ready by going through two simulated flights a day with war strategy and dog fighting classes in between.
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Cameron sat alone in his holding cell. So much had happened in the last week that Cameron’s head was in a fog. The week started with his promotion to captain and assignment to the head of his engineering watch section. His fighter squad was ranked second on the ship, with Cameron flying in the number one position. He was once again denied his request to change roommates; Lieutenant Frank Benton had yet to go into hibernation. The week ended with an explosion in engine room number two, the ship turning back towards Earth, and Cameron being brought up on charges of sabotage and murder.
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Bill sat at the computer, not understanding how this was happening. Minutes ago, Captain Cameron Steele was sitting directly across from him, but the Bio-scan tracking system was picking up his biorhythm on the other side of the ship. Bill’s first thought was that someone hacked into the Bio-scan database and changed the baseline data for Captain Steele. He pulled up Steele’s baseline data and compared it to the data from the lie detector; it was a match. Whoever was on the other side of the ship actually had the same biorhythm signal as Captain Steele, which was impossible.
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“How long before we reach Stinson’s estimated position?” General Williams asked the navigation officer. Hal was getting nervous since they were coming close to the location where the Stinson should be, and they weren’t picking her up on any of their long-range sensors.
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Major Dillon started talking before Major Werke could get his next sentence out. “There is no telling what technology advances have happened on Earth. As you said, it has been over thirty years; they could have found a way to reverse the damage to the planet. This also means they could have developed weapons that are far superior to ours, and we could end up being target practice for them. I think going in without knowing is too risky.”
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The general followed the doctor through a couple of doors and down the corridor to a room he had never been in – the morgue. In five years, there hasn’t been one death on the Legacy, and he knew they had been quite fortunate and that it was only a matter of time before their luck would run out.
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Cameron opened his eyes; he fought to stay conscious. Every time they closed, he would slip back into a deep sleep. He felt he was fighting a losing battle. A blurred Colonel Withers was standing over him when his eyes opened this time. It was confusing to Cameron, he was unsure of where he was or why. He could see the colonel injecting something into his intravenous line; Cameron started to feel warm from the inside.
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Alex looked around the captain’s office and noticed it was very bland with no pictures of anyone or anything. In fact, other than a few books on WSA regulations and security, he didn’t see anything else. Alex forced himself to stop looking around. He was an officer in the World Space Agency now, and not an immature kid straight out of high school. Plus, there was no way Captain Deerfield remembered him staring at her down a corridor five years ago. He just hoped that nobody had noticed him staring at her when he was first introduced to her in the general’s office. He hadn’t thought of her in years and was unprepared to suddenly be face to face with the woman he had fantasized over for several months.
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Was there any life left on Earth? The last radio transmission received from the scout indicated that all industrial zones were inactive, no movement of any kind on the radar, and there was not a single radio broadcast anywhere from the surface.
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“All hands, General Quarters! All hands, General Quarters!” the ship’s intercom blared loudly over Alex’s bunk, waking him up with a jolt. His training helped him clear the cobwebs from his head as he quickly got into his flight suit and dashed out of his room, heading towards the launch bay.
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Cameron took a deep breath and entered the downed scout ship. He looked for the survival kit amongst all the smoke, it was not on the bulkhead next to the exit as it should be. Cameron dropped to his hands and knees and started to search on the ground; his eyes started to burn. His hand bumped something metal. It felt like the size of the survival kit, but he could not tell for sure. His heart pounding, Cameron headed for the exit with the case in hand. No longer able to hold his breath, his body instinctively tried to draw in air; his lungs filled with the harmful smoke.
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“I’m sorry, Pax. I waited too long to come help. I will never forgive myself,” he whispered. “I promise you, I will avenge your death.” After another five minutes of staring at his friend’s picture hoping it would give him some solace and resolve, he got up and headed towards the war room.
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All of a sudden, Alex felt himself being painfully pushed into his seat as the blood rushed away from his head. Even as he felt himself start to lose consciousness, he couldn’t help but open his eyes to witness his inevitable death. This is it, he thought.
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With no battery power, the auxiliary power unit could be started with a 9mm round. The bullet would work similar to the start-up cartridge used to start a WWII F4U Corsair; the Talon’s system was based on the WWII fighter’s system. A round is inserted into the Talon’s starting chamber; then the retraction level is pulled which arms the system. The start-up button is pressed, and in one swift motion, the mechanism knocks the slug out of the round and fires the round. The flash from the exploding gun-powder is enough to start the relatively small generator.
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Bill rubbed his eyes; he had been awake for the last thirty-six hours. Things were finally starting to settle down, but they were still on full alert. Most of the non-essential personnel were being transferred to the Legacy. The Legacy pulled back out of Earth’s orbit to help avoid another attack. The Stinson still sat in orbit. Repairs were underway to help get the Stinson to a safe place.
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The scene before them when Hal and Tom arrived was horrific and chaotic. Tom’s emergency response team was already hard at work on the wounded outside the hangar bay. Hal reasoned that these must be the lucky few that made it out of the hangar bay before the emergency bulkheads closed after pressure was lost. The doors were back open now that Keller’s men had sealed the tear, allowing the room to re-pressurize. Hal walked carefully around burnt debris and charred bodies to reach Major Keller, who was talking to a major he didn’t recognize.
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He decided to run his hand across every circuit breaker he could see or feel. It was a long shot, but if some of the circuit breakers were in different locations than he was used to, then it might be possible that there was another breaker that he didn’t know about, and that it might be popped. Sure enough, behind his seat and to the right, his hand felt a breaker that was open. There was no way he would be able to turn his body to check the label to see if it was related to the generator system.
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“Stinson, this is Captain Steele from the Stinson and Captain Gonzalez from the Legacy. Do you copy?” The radio was silent. Cameron checked the radio settings and tried again. “Stinson, this is Captain Steele from the Stinson and Captain Gonzalez from the Legacy. Do you copy?” Cameron waited for a response; the radio was quiet. “Stinson, this is Captain Steele from the Stinson and Captain Gonzalez from the Legacy. Do you copy?”
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The two sat in silence for a bit, just staring at the earth. Bill knew they had a long road ahead, no matter which situation was true. He didn’t know which he would prefer. Having to fight aliens meant more lives would be lost. On the other hand, no aliens meant they might have to fight their own kind just to survive. Bill’s stomach turned.
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Within a few minutes, they had made it to an interrogation room in the detention area Alex had never seen before. Alex thought about his chances of trying to escape, but the two guards looked plenty capable of handling his small frame. One of the guards opened a metal door that led into a small room. Inside, sitting on a chair behind a table, was Captain Grace Deerfield, Legacy’s Security Officer.
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“Earth is angry that we left. We start on diplomatic solutions right away. We either need to convince Earth to let us stay, or let us restock the Legacy with supplies so we can restart our journey. In this case, we would abandon the Stinson all together.”
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Cameron’s breath materialized before him on every exhale. Due to all the rows of boxes, there was no direct line of sight to the other end of the storage room. He peered around the first row of boxes; it was clear to the end. Cameron made his way to the end of the row and looked around the corner. Three figures were near the exit he needed. It would be impossible to sneak by them without detection.
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General Fobbs started his account from the time when the Legacy and Stinson first left Earth. He told them how Earth’s population hunted down and killed the remaining members of the World Space Agency. How attempts were made to try to trick the two ships into returning to Earth, and how false reports were sent from the Earth orbiters that a way was found to reverse the damage here on Earth. He then explained how the Ferus arrived about twenty years ago and took over the planet in a matter of a few hours.
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Just then, Alex noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw a security guard duck back out of view just as he turned his head in the direction they were headed. As he realized he was walking into a trap, he heard a distinctive click.
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“The Ferus want our uranium. They’re using us to mine it. What they need it for, we have no idea. They have also created these human farms where they artificially inseminate our women to have as many babies as possible. Every ten years, they send a ship to pick up the children destined to be slaves, or so we think.”
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It had been four days since Hal had talked with Bill Withers about his plan to sacrifice himself and the Stinson, and still Alex and their team of scientists hadn’t figured out a way to make the cloaking device work on the Stinson. After Bill had made a convincing case to him that this was the right thing to do, he still wasn’t completely convinced, and he secretly hoped that they couldn’t get the device to work. He shook his head.
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“We have less than eight days till the transport ship arrives.” Trexlor paced back and forth. “I’m going to lay it all out. We have just ninety Talons left between both ships. Intelligence tells us there are a handful of these Ferus fighters left on Earth. We all saw what a small number of them did to us last time.”
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The Stinson was ready. Bill’s crew was ready. Bill was ready. There was nothing left to do to prepare the ship. Everything had been checked four and five times. They had been tracking the Ferus transport as it approached Earth, and it was due to arrive in less than fourteen hours. It never changed course. Was it possible they did not know the Stinson was waiting for them?
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He thought of their battle plan, and was very nervous about it. There were so many things that could go wrong, but then he guessed that could be said of any plan. Using the cloaked Stinson to ram the incoming Ferus ship was bold and, of course, suicidal. He hadn’t realized while he was working on getting the cloaking device to work for the Stinson what they had intended to do, it was only imperative that he get it to work.
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Hal knew that the Legacy was a good ship, and the crew was ready to make this landing. This ship was designed to make a one-time landing, albeit it on the planet Ashokan, not Earth. All right, time to make the general announcement, he thought. He activated the ship-wide intercom. “Attention all hands, attention all hands. General Quarters…prepare for planetary re-entry.”
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Four men sat in Central Control, including Bill. All of the remote viewing screens had been repaired. This was their only view outside of the ship. Two screens were focused on the Ferus craft Lieutenant Colonel Steele was in, which was now out in front of the Stinson. One screen had a view of Earth. All but one of the remaining screens had different outside views of the ship, mostly showing stars. The last screen was tracking the Ferus transport. The image was blurred, due to the speed and distance of the ship.
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Cameron stretched out in the cockpit designed for the larger alien race. Being larger than average, he was usually cramped in the confines of most cockpits, but he never minded. Steele had spent more time in the Ferus fighter in the last week than he had liked, but was still in awe of the craft. There was still so much to learn from the foreign technology.
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“Look, everyone. I’m not going to lie to you. This is not going to be easy. It might even be the worst thing you ever go through. But I got to tell you, Lt. Colonel Steele is the best pilot and soldier I’ve ever met. Trust me. He and I have come a long way, and we have complete faith in each other, so when he says he can do it, then I believe it one hundred percent. Our job is to not let HIM down. We need to be there exactly when he needs us. Once his cover is blown, he’s going to need our help, and as you’ve learned from Steele, only together can we beat the Ferus.”
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He looked around and could see several people moving throughout the smoky haze. The surviving crewmembers were trying desperately to put out fires that were springing up as fast as they were putting them out. His eyes were beginning to sting.
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All at once, the men charged for the opening in the ship. Cameron had seen movement. Lasers shot from three obscured positions on the side of the ship, and in the blink of an eye, most of the group of men were gone.
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General Williams nodded affirmative. The stress of the recent days showed on the general’s face. Cameron put on the green aviation headset and adjusted the mic to sit just in front of his lips. He handed General Williams a set to put on.
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Alex was desperately trying to think of a way out of their predicament, but it was just no use. Their air supply would last them for a few more hours, but they had nowhere to go. He tapped the air supply indicator. The needle didn’t move. Jason throttled back to idle.
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